Safety Vision, a global provider of mobile digital video solutions, has been awarded an approximately USD 250,000 sole-source contract to install onboard surveillance camera systems on 50 new Call-A-Ride paratransit vans for the Metro transit agency in St. Louis, Missouri. The agency's Call-A-Ride program delivers curb-to-curb public transportation for eligible riders in the St. Louis area, providing citizens with certain prescribed disabilities or special circumstances with equivalent access to areas served by Metro's fixed-route services.
Each new Call-A-Ride vehicle will be outfitted with four mobile-rated security cameras; microphones; impact sensors; and the Safety Vision RoadRecorder 6000 PRO mobile digital video recorder (MDVR). The MDVR supports up to 10 interior and exterior cameras and records video, audio, and system health data in a secure, encrypted MPEG4 format. Building on earlier generations in the RoadRecorder series, the PRO features more camera frames per second, tripled storage capacity, wireless connectivity, and streamlined data management.
The new contract, partially funded by a Department of Homeland Security Grant, was approved by the agency in June 2008. Installation is scheduled to occur in two shifts: the first 25 vehicles in August 2008, the second 25 in October 2008. Safety Vision-a 16-year veteran of the mobile surveillance industry-has supported Metro's transit security efforts for 11 years. Says Safety Vision account executive John Major, "We've installed camera systems on hundreds of Metro's transit buses and light-rail vehicles. As we move into the paratransit vans, we're extending our mobile safety net to encompass all of Metro's ridership, driver/operators, and rolling assets. This project is also of note as one of our largest installations of security cameras in a paratransit fleet."
Metro manager of communications maintenance Rick Farthing attributes the successful long-term business partnership with Safety Vision to responsiveness and reliability: "For many years, Safety Vision has delivered continuity of personnel and consistency of professionalism. They've turned a keen ear to our needs, enabling us to help them customize their mobile video offering to suit our unique requirements. Through many system installations and solution evolutions, the responsiveness of Safety Vision's personnel has been a constant, and the reliability of its product has shown continuous improvement."
Adds Safety Vision's Major, "Along with Broward County Transit in Florida, St. Louis Metro is one of our oldest transit customers. We've shared their longstanding commitment to improving the safety and security of their personnel and the public, and we've learned together over the years. The Safety Vision team takes pains to ask the right questions of these and other transit customers, and to listen carefully to their answers. Our in-house engineering staff then designs solutions according to customer input, yielding the most technologically advanced yet user friendly systems available today and into the future."
Transit authorities in other major metropolitan areas including Washington, D.C., Chicago, Illinois, and Portland, Oregon also are using the Safety Vision onboard camera systems to increase operator safety, enhance public security, mitigate transit authorities' risk, and strengthen criminal prosecutors' cases.
